292 BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



masonry, also, it is employed to some extent. As the city 

 advances and covers the outcrops, the localities of supply 

 decrease in number and less of it is used. The more 

 massive constructions of recent years have necessitated the 

 use of stone in blocks of large dimensions, and more of 

 granite and limestone and less of this stone. Many of the 

 older church edifices were built of gneiss. Among the 

 more prominent examples, which may here be referred to, 

 are : the side walls of St. Paul's church, Broadway ; St 

 John's Protestant Episcopal church, Varick street (built in 

 1803-7) 'y St. Matthew's Lutheran church, Broome, corner 

 of Elizabeth street ; New York Juvenile Asylum, West 

 One Hundred and Seventy-eighth street and the Forty- 

 second street Croton reservoir. Owing to the laminated 

 structure of the more micaceous gneiss, it is liable to dis- 

 integration along the lines of mica and to flake or scale off, 

 when set on edge. And such decay is noticeable in the 

 stone of these older buildings. The necessity of repairs in 

 the case of the more inferior kinds of gneiss makes it unde- 

 sirable as a building stone, except where it is protected from 

 the action of atmospheric agencies. 



Ma7^bles 



The use of marbles in the construction of exterior walls 

 was formerly much larger than at present. The opening of 

 the Tuckahoe and other quarries in Westchester county, so 

 near the city, and the erection of several notable white 

 marble buildings in the earlier decades of this century, 

 brought this stone into notice and favor. White marble 

 fronts were in fashion, mainly for business buildings, and 

 Broadway was noted for the number of these *' marble 

 palaces." Many residences were built with marble facings. 

 The introduction of sandstones of various kinds, of lime- 

 stones and granites, has caused a decline in the demand for 

 marble, particularly for exterior construction, and compar- 



